Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic hasn’t been around long, but they’ve sure had an impact on the NBA.

The team, which debuted in the 1989-1990 season, quickly become a dominate force in the NBA with the likes of Bison Dele and Shaquille O’Neal filling it’s ranks over the years.

The road to Orlando getting their own NBA team started four years before the Orlando Magic was established.

Jim Hewitt, a local developer and banker, lured Philadelphia 76ers General Manager Pat Williams to the state and got him to start selling Orlando Magic merchandise and deposits on season-ticket reservations.

The effort impressed the NBA which on April 22, 1987 voted to add four new franchises: one in Charlotte and another in Miami for the 1988-1989 season and one in Orlando and one in Minnesota for the 1989-1990 season. It cost $32.5 million for the teams to join the league.

The Orlando Magic had little success through the 1991-1992 season, but it was the next season which changed the Magic’s luck. In 1992 the Orlando Magic won the first pick in the NBA Draft Lottery and landed Shaquille O’Neal.

The next year the Orlando Magic managed to land another number one pick in the draft and traded it for number three pick Andernee “Penny” Hardaway and three future first-round draft choices. The result was the formation of the potent duo, O’Neal and Hardaway, and lead to Orlando getting 11 first-round draft picks over the next seven years.

The Orlando Magic has a tough season in 2003 – 2004, but in the following season the Magic was awarded the top pick in the NBA Draft Lottery for the third time in franchise history perhaps paving the way for another era of magic Magic.